Wessler: Guess what? The Illini offense is a fun bunch

We forget this sometimes, way too many times, but football is supposed to be fun.

Bill Cubit knows. That’s why the Illinois offense he coordinates is a fun-making machine, seemingly on a mission to turn this season into an all-out circus.

“Tons of fun,” wide receiver Ryan Lankford said Saturday after he rushed three times for 46 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown, in the Illini’s surprising 45-17 victory over Cincinnati.

Kirk Wessler

We forget this sometimes, way too many times, but football is supposed to be fun.

Bill Cubit knows. That’s why the Illinois offense he coordinates is a fun-making machine, seemingly on a mission to turn this season into an all-out circus.

“Tons of fun,” wide receiver Ryan Lankford said Saturday after he rushed three times for 46 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown, in the Illini’s surprising 45-17 victory over Cincinnati.

That’s right. Lankford, who led Illinois with six pass receptions for 115 yards and a touchdown in the opener last week, rushed the ball two more times than he caught it in Game 2, and the Illini offense didn’t slow down even a blink. And Lankford was not alone in this anything-can-happen-at-any-time adventure. Not by 522 yards of total offense was he alone.

Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase threw for 312 yards and four touchdowns, which equaled the number of scoring plays he threw all last season. He hooked up with nine different receivers in the first half, 11 in the game. Nine! Eleven!

“I never thought that could be possible, to be honest,” Lankford said. “The beautiful thing is, I was wrong.”

He is not alone there, either. Nobody but a confirmed lunatic would have thought such offensive production possible from this collection of players. In three previous seasons, Scheelhaase had proved one thing to the citizens of Illini Nation: He can’t throw well enough to be a good Big Ten quarterback.

Looks like they were wrong.

“Guess what?” Cubit said. “He can throw.”

Cubit loves it when people doubt him or his players. Loves it.

“I heard a commentator right before the game say we can’t win because we can’t run,” Cubit said. “Guess what?”

The Illini rushed for 210 yards, with seven different players carrying the ball.

It’s as old as football, this practice of football coaches using external negativity to motivate players. But it doesn’t always work, because once the emotional charge of being disrespected wears out, the players still have to execute the game plan. Sometimes, they simply lack talent to do that. Other times, they’re not up to fighting through adversity.

One thing we’re learning about Cubit in his first season at Illinois: He’s not like a lot of coaches.

Where most coaches are a sure bet to play safe with a lead in the closing minute of a half, Cubit last week unleashed Scheelhaase to mount a 94-yard scoring drive that ultimately won the game. Where most coaches are inclined to keep the ball on the ground with a lead in the fourth quarter, Cubit prefers “to keep the pedal to the metal” and air it out.

Then this happened Saturday. Cincinnati, riding momentum and down only 11 points in the third quarter, fumbled on fourth-and-1 at the goal line. Illinois, which had been stuffed on three downs three successive possessions, had zero margin for error and desperately needed at least to move the ball. Tension was high.

Except in Cubit’s World.

“I kinda like it when we’re down there,” Cubit said. “I tell our kids all the time, ‘This is a chance to get 99.’”

Guess what?

That’s exactly what the Illini got: 99 yards for a touchdown.

Cubit is a guy who wakes up in the middle of the night and draws up new formations and plays. He totes a notebook so he can do the same whenever inspiration strikes. The Illini lined up in at least 20 different formations Saturday. One time on third down, they put three wideouts in a tight triangle on the left end and had them weave and dance at the snap, while Scheelhaase whipped a pass to the right sideline for a first down.

Drove Cincinnati crazy.

In 1992, after 17 years as a college assistant and occasional high school coach, Cubit became head coach at Division III Widener University.

“Nobody was gonna fire me,” Cubit said. “I was working with kids who had been out on missions. That was mainly what they wanted, to just have fun with this thing. Enjoy it.”

He has stuck with the fun approach ever since. He loves seeing the “weird looks” players give him when he introduces certain concepts. He loves it more when they like the plan so much, they start bringing their own ideas.

“The most fun,” Lankford said, “is you don’t know what to expect. We have tight ends here, running backs there, wide receivers there. And it’s a great feeling being put in situations to make plays.”

That’s the other area in which Cubit is particularly excellent. He deals with the talent on hand, and rather than trying to ram one way of doing things down everyone’s resistant throats, he adapts to give each of his players their best opportunities to succeed.

You see, you don’t always have to be blessed with the most talent to come out on top. As long as you do your thing better than your opponent does his, good things generally happen.

Right now, the Illinois offense is doing its thing pretty darn well.

KIRK WESSLER is Journal Star executive sports editor/columnist. He can be reached at kwessler@pjstar.com, or 686-3216. Read his Captain’s Blog at blogs.pjstar.com/wessler/. Follow him on Twitter @KirkWessler.

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